I Am Hades
by Silvertongue90
Summary: Hades gets tired of everyone bad mouthing him just because he is the Lord of the Dead. So he decides to set the record straight and tell them the true story of himself. Rated T just in case. Do not read if you have a weak stomach.
1. I Am Hades

**Title: I Am Hades**

**By Silvertongue90**

**A/N: This is in the Percy Jackson section because Hades and Persephone have the personalities Rick Riordan gave them in his books.**

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Hades angrily flung the book across the floor and shot a blast of black fire at a rock formation that looked like it had been melted down by intense heat several times. He felt like screaming and this was the best way to relieve his stress.

Persephone, his wife, heard the commotion in passing, and ran into the throne room to find her husband sulking on his throne. A book lay on the ground. She picked it up and saw the binding was broken.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

Hades glared at her. "That book is utter nonsense! Why am I always the villain among the gods? In books and movies I am always creating chaos and killing mortals at random. Don't they realize that I am too busy to kill mortals? Their lives are too short as it is and they JUST KEEP COMING FOR ME TO JUDGE!"

Persephone listened to him rant and rave for a few more minutes, knowing he needed it, before she quietly reminded him that he had more of the dead to sort out.

He glowered when she reminded him of his duty, but made the signal to allow more of the dead to come before him to judge.

Persephone left the throne room, contemplating her husband's problem.

The next morning at breakfast, Hades was going through a list of spirits in the Waiting Room and was astonished to learn how long most of them had been there. He discovered one spirit named Gillian Cooper had been waiting four hundred years to get into the Underworld!

He would have to tell Charon to let him through.

Persephone came in smiling mischievously, holding her left hand behind her back. "Guess what I have for you?"

"I'm not in a guessing mood, Persephone!" he snapped.

She didn't seem at all phased by his bad mood. Persephone handed Hades a hurriedly wrapped package with tiny flowers decorating the paper.

"What's this?" he asked suspiciously.

"Something that will solve your problem," Persephone answered. "Something that will set the record straight that your not all bad."

"Oh, yeah?" Hades tore at the paper and unwrapped a hard covered book. He flipped it open and discovered it was blank. "Is this a joke?"

He scowled at his wife.

Persephone sat down and calmly began eating breakfast while Hades not-so-calmly watched her. "You write the true account of yourself," she explained after a long pause.

Hades laughed, but not out of amusement. "When do I have time to write? My job takes up all my time."

She didn't answer him.

Hades growled and stormed out of the room.

He was busy most of the afternoon judging the dead and assigning them to the places they deserved to go to, but his wife's suggestion played in the back of his mind the whole time. Finally, he took a break he couldn't afford and brought out the notebook.

After a moment of thought, he scrawled down the title, _I Am Hades_.

Then he began to write, letting the words pour out of him freely.

_I suppose I should start at the beginning of my life. _

_I am the son of Kronos and Rhea. When I was born Kronos swallowed me whole along with my other siblings when they were born._

_In case you are wondering, it wasn't comfortable in Kronos' stomach. __Especially as time went along and we continued to grow into adulthood. Often times I would try to push and shove my way out of his stomach, but it never did any good. _

_I suppose I had some good times with my brother and sisters. Sometimes we sang together and told each other stories to make the time pass quicker. But we also got onto each others nerves and fought like wild cats. Come to think of it, we still fight like wild cats even though we rarely see each other anymore._

_I remember the day Kronos swallowed the rock perfectly. _

_It was the only time there was actually any excitement at that point in my life. __Poseidon and I thought he had swallowed it in hopes of getting rid of us because we hadn't digested. After all, it must have been uncomfortable for him too. Wouldn't you feel it if your children were constantly moving around in your stomach? Pregnant women feel it, so Kronos must have felt us moving around._

_Demeter told us we were being stupid and that he had swallowed the rock so we could grow a garden for ourselves and not have to eat the stuff he ate (gross I know). __Hestia protested and told Demeter she was wrong. That Kronos had swallowed it in hopes of giving them warmth when they heated the rock. How she expected us to heat the rock in here, I'll never know. _

_Though it is amusing to think of us heating the rock and burning Kronos alive from the inside._

_And Hera put in her two cents worth by saying we all were wrong and he had swallowed the rock so we could love it until it became a human child for us to raise (she's a little strange in the head). __Turns out we were all wrong, but we didn't learn that until several years later. __Meanwhile we fought over the rock and tried to use it as we saw fit._

_The day Zeus made Kronos vomit us up, I was sleeping, using the rock as a pillow and Hestia was trying to steal it, but I held on tightly. __Then next thing I knew, the rock was gone! It went straight up and out of sight._

"_What?-" Poseidon began, then he too flew straight up and was gone._

_Hestia, Demeter, and Hera huddled together, whimpering. _

_I wanted to huddle up with them, but knew I needed to be brave for their sakes. _

_Kronos stomach seemed a little rockier than usual and I hung on. "It's okay-" I started to reassure my sisters when I felt a tug and was pulled up into the air. _

_Demeter screamed. Not just any scream but an eardrum shattering scream. I'm sure Kronos and everyone else in the outside world heard it._

_I tumbled onto the ground, sticky with slime, into the brightest light I had ever seen. __It took awhile for my eyes to adjust, but then I could see everything perfectly._

_A young man had a tight hold on Kronos, who was doubled over retching. __I remember making a face as I realized what that meant._

_Poseidon crawled toward me and smiled. "We're free!" he exclaimed._

"_Who is he?" I nodded in the young man's direction._

_Poseidon shrugged. "Our savior, deliverer, whatever you want to call him. The main thing is we are out of Kronos stomach!"_

_We watched as Kronos regurgitated Hera, Demeter, and lastly Hestia. _

_Demeter moaned something about being unfit for public, but I didn't pay too much attention to her, instead I watched the young man who had saved us._

"_Come, brothers and sisters!" he cried to us. "Help me finish him!" _

_We took turns hacking Kronos into little pieces with his own scythe. To me, it was very satisfying getting even with him for condemning me to a life of boredom in his stomach. __Afterwards we threw his remains into the deepest pit of Tartarus. _

_The young man's name was Zeus and turned out to be our brother. The rock Kronos had swallowed several years ago was suppose to be him, but instead Rhea, our mother, tricked Kronos. Giving him the rock instead of Zeus. __I couldn't help being angry and a little jealous. Why hadn't our mother thought of that when I was born?_

_We spent the next ten years fighting off the Titans and taking over Olympus. During that time Zeus, Poseidon, and I were given weapons as gifts that we could use against the Titans by the Cyclops for freeing them from Kampe._

_Zeus was given the Lightning Bolt, I a Helmet of Darkness, and Poseidon, the Trident. With these weapons we were able to defeat the Titans and establish ourselves as gods of Olympus. __When the war ended, my brothers and I cast lots to share the rule of the sky, sea, and underworld._

_Zeus won the sky (and if I had known he would have had too much power I would have protested), Poseidon the sea, and I won the Underworld. __I think I was the only one who truly got the short end of the stick, so to speak. I always work while the other two mess around with women or chase after foolish dreams. I have to constantly work because human lives are so short. _

_I have three lines of dead people waiting for judgment, more of the dead waiting in the Waiting Room because there are too many in line, and let's not mention all the spirits who try to get out of the Underworld to haunt their loved ones._

_I have to think up new tortures for the low lifes that die and I am forced to expand the Underworld to accomodate the growing number of dead. _

_While on the subject, why do you humans have to have so many wars? It's bad enough when we gods have wars that kill human lives. Don't you think you could come up with a better solution to your problems? Your wars cause more work for me. _

_Anyway back to the story._

_Zeus' first order of business was to marry Hera, who had been making_ _'eyes'__ at him since he first saved us from Kronos' stomach. __His second order of business was putting Demeter in charge of taking care of the land for the humans. __Hestia became part of Zeus' council._

_We settled into our respective jobs and I built my Underworld palace in a darker fashion after Olympus. _

_It wasn't until three years later that I began to notice a change in my siblings attitude toward me. __They talked to me only when they had to and avoided eye contact with me. It took me awhile to realize the change was because of what I had become. Being the Lord of the Dead doesn't exactly earn you points. _

_I was shunned by my only family._

_After living like this for a time I began to get lonely. I wanted to love someone and be loved back. The dead are not easy to talk to. Whenever I and my dog, Cerberus, would go for a walk they'd hurry about their eternal punishments and refused to look at me. __I became less carefree and now have a permanent scowl that scares even the bravest demigods._

_Finally I couldn't take it anymore. _

_I begged Zeus for a wife to keep me company and he told me to take his daughter by Demeter. _

_Persephone. _

_But he told me to wait until she was alone before taking her away. __So I watched her and the more I watched her the more I fell in love. _

_I was sure she was the right woman for me and in time she would love me back. I would be the most kind caring husband I could be. __I abided my time until she was alone picking flowers. She laughed as she studied them and brought them to her delicate nose to breath in the scent. __I was almost too caught up in watching her before I remembered I was supposed to get her and bring her to my kingdom._

_I flicked the reigns of my horses harnessed to my chariot and split the earth in two, ascending up out of the ground. _

_Persephone was frightened, but didn't run away as I thought she would. I jumped down from the chariot and smiled at her. __I had been practicing that smile in the mirror for this moment. I hoped it had improved since the last time I saw it._

_She took in my dark clothes (at that time I was wearing a black robe and breeches.). "Who are you?" she asked. Her beautiful blue eyes sparkled with mischief. _

"_I am your uncle, Hades."_

"_Oh, I've heard of you. Mother doesn't like to talk about you much."_

"_I intimidate them," I explained. _

_Persephone smiled angelically. "I think you're nice."_

"_Would you like to visit the Underworld?" I asked her politely. _

_She gave my horses a doubtful look. "Will they bite?"_

"_Of course not," I gently led her to the chariot and hopped on next to her. __We descended into the earth and I showed Persephone the entire Underworld. __She smiled and said the appropriate things, but I don't think she was that impressed. I saw her shudder a few times and once she said she thought the place needed flowers to brighten it. __Soon she was asking if she could go home. _

_I stared at her and caressed her face. "You can never go home now, Persephone you will be my wife." _

_That day was very painful for me. When she was told she could not go back to earth she cried and tried to lock herself in our room. I comforted her as best as I could. __Two months past before she would speak to me. I had gotten so used to her silence I nearly dropped my fork when she quietly asked if she could plant a garden in the back. _

_I told her yes, eager to please her. __She could not start the garden she wanted to with all of her favorite flowers because they would not grow in the Underworld, but she did the best she could and fixed a beautiful mini park behind our palace._

_Meanwhile, up top, things were not going so well for Zeus, who was regretting agreeing to let me make Persephone my wife. Demeter was neglecting her duties as she searched for her daughter and the earth was drying up. Finally, she threatened Zeus with a famine if he did not bring their daughter back. __Zeus ordered that I return Persephone, my beloved wife, immediately. _

_Persephone tried to appear sad about her departure for my sake, but I knew she longed to see the earth again and to be among the flowers she loved. __I couldn't bare the idea of parting with her so I devised a plan to get her to stay with me part of the year. __I gave her six pomegranate seeds from a tree in the garden I had insisted Persephone plant in case something like this happened. She accepted them and ate them. __When I brought her back to the world above, Zeus and Demeter were waiting for us. Demeter scowled at me and looked her daughter over. _

_"Are you all right sweetheart? Did he hurt you? You look absolutely skinny! You need more grain!"_

_Zeus wouldn't look me in the eye as he said, "Sorry Hades, we'll find you another wife."_

_I looked at Persephone, who returned my stare. I thought I could see a happiness in her eyes I hadn't seen since the first day I brought her to the Underworld, that made me sad because I was sure she would hate me for what I was about to say next. "Lord Zeus," I began respectfully. "Persephone ate food that grew in the Underworld."_

_Demeter stared at me suspiciously. "What does that mean?"_

_Zeus gave me a shrewd look. "What did she eat and how much?" He ignored Demeter._

"_She ate six pomegranate seeds."_

_Persephone was confused. "That's what you gave me just before we left."_

"_What are you all talking about?" Demeter demanded._

_Zeus turned to Demeter. "It means, my dear sister, that Persephone can only stay with you six months out of the year, then she must return to the Underworld and live with Hades for rest of the six months. When food from the Underworld is consumed that person can never completely live on earth anymore."_

_Demeter's mouth hung open and she stared at me enraged, then she found her voice. "HOW DARE YOU TRICK MY DAUGHTER LIKE THAT! YOU SELFISH JERK!" __She raised her hand as if to slap me, but Zeus quickly intervened. _

_Persephone's sad eyes stared at me and she moved closer as Zeus and Demeter squabbled. "You tricked me," her lips quivered. __I stared at the ground, unable to look her in the eyes. _

_"I didn't think you would agree to stay with me for half a year," I looked into her eyes silently pleading with her to understand me. "I love you, Persephone and I couldn't lose you."_

_There was a ghost of a smile on her face and she placed her hand in mine. "You can be a thickheaded jerk sometimes but I-I think I love you too. I just wish you hadn't tricked me. Don't you think we could have arranged for me to stay on earth and visit you often?" I did not answer because I knew how that would have ended. She would have visited me a few times, then found excuses to not come back. I wasn't an idiot._

_She was waiting for me to answer her so I leaned toward her and kissed her passionately. Persephone started to pull away, but I grabbed her and held her close to me, forcing her to stay. __Demeter saw what I was doing and screeched at me some more. She roughly pulled Persephone away from me and dragged her by the arm in the other direction, declaring that it was her turn to have Persephone. _

_I was sad, but giddy all that day. I knew Persephone didn't completely love me and she probably never would, but at least I would be able to have her for six months out of a year._

_Two months later Hermes, who had been made messenger of the gods, brought a note to me from Persephone. Her note said we were expecting our first child. I wanted to go see her, but Zeus told me no, reminding me that I would see her soon enough._

_Through the years Persephone and I have had two children. Sometimes she loves me and sometimes she can't stand me, but that is all right because I still love her, for the most part. __There is not much more I can add about my life. It has remained the same through the years with the occasional demigod coming along to make demands or steal something from me._

_Though I should set the record straight here. _

_I AM A NICE GUY! _

_Mostly. __I don't know where people get the idea that I'm not. Being the Lord of the Dead does not mean I enjoy death._

_When you humans have wars, my halls are filled to the brim with dead people and I can never get the lines moving fast enough, as I've already said before. Not to mention, having to deal with people dying when their time comes. _

_You humans' lives are too short!_

_Me, starting war with my brothers means more work for myself. AND if you compared me to my brothers, I am actually a very nice person. _

_Poseidon's top blows whenever someone says something bad about him and he's constantly chasing women around, raping them. Zeus is just as bad, except he is sneaker about it. __I have only cheated on Persephone four times in my life and I treat her better than Zeus or Poseidon treat their wives._

_So, pass it on to everyone you meet that I am a nice guy!_

_-Lord Hades_

Hades sat back and read his handiwork.

It was pretty good even if he did say so himself. Now all he needed to do was get it out to the public. He thought about it until an idea struck him. Snapping his fingers, a laptop appeared in front of him.

He quickly found the website he was looking. Hades browsed through the stories already there, then published his story to fanfiction.

There.

That should do it. Now his story would be read by thousands of people who would discover the true Hades.

He snapped his fingers again for the door to open and the dead to come in for him to judge.

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**Hey! Hope you all like it! Please review!**


	2. Persephone Reads I Am Hades

**Title: I Am Hades**

**By Silvertongue90**

**A/N: ****This is probably not that great. ****DarkFireAngel00 suggested I write about Persephone reading Hades' story, so this second chapter is dedicated to DarkFireAngel00. **

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Hades never mentioned the notebook Persephone gave him,. Nor what he did with it.

Persephone was curious and wondered if he wrote anything, but every time she asked he'd glare at her and leave the room.

Finally, her curiosity got the better of her.

She searched her husband's room, but could not find the notebook. She checked to see if any calls had been placed outside the Underworld recently, perhaps he had contacted a publishing company for his book.

No such luck.

If he did write it, what would he do with the story? The entire point was to get people to know the true Hades.

Persephone laughed darkly as she realized she didn't even know the true Hades.

Then she remembered that website Hermes started.

What was it called again?

Fan-something or another. Fanfiction! That was it. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people read fanfiction, and since technically the humans weren't supposed to know the gods existed, that would be the perfect place for such a story because everyone would think of it as fiction. Nothing more.

Persephone snapped her fingers and a laptop appeared. She searched for the website and found it.

Now to find the story.

She froze, realizing she didn't know the name of the story. How would she ever find it?

A trumpet blasted behind her and she turned to see Hermes. "I have a package for Lord Hades."

"Hermes! You are just the man I need!"

A horrified look crossed the messenger god's features. "I'm sure Hades would not like that at all. Now, if you give it time, Hades will figure out how to, uh, give you your needs."

Persephone stared at him like he had grown horns on his head. "What? Never mind. Since you invented the internet wouldn't you know everything that is on it?"

"Of course," Hermes said looking extremely bored and punching buttons on his cell phone.

"Hades wrote a story about himself and I'm sure he put it on taht fanfiction website, would you know how to find it?"

"Oh, I know what you're talking about. I've been meaning to read it, but I haven't the time because of all these packages and messages I have to deliver. There's this girl who calls herself Silvertongue90, he used her account to publish his story. I think he titled it, _I Am Hades_."

"Thank you," Persephone typed the title in the search engine.

A few stories appeared on the screen and she quickly found the one posted by Silvertongue90.

"I would stick around and read it with you, but I have many more packages to deliver." Hermes stepped on a pearl and disappeared. Persephone barely noticed as she clicked on the story to read.

_I suppose I should start at the beginning of my life._

Well, duh. Where else would you start? Persephone shook her head at the silly line.

_I am the son of Kronos and Rhea. When I was born Kronos swallowed me whole, along with my other siblings when they were born._

_In case you are wondering, it wasn't comfortable in Kronos' stomach. Especially as time went along, and we continued to grow into adulthood. Often times, I would try to push and shove my way out of his stomach, but it never did any good. I suppose I had some good times with my brother and sisters, sometimes we sang together and told each other stories to make the time pass quicker. But we also got onto each others nerves and fought. Come to think of it we still fight a lot even though we rarely see each other anymore._

Now this sound interesting. Persephone sometimes begged her father, Zeus, to tell her the story of how his reign began and he always obliged her. But her mother-Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, and even Hades refused to tell her what it was like all those years in Kronos stomach. They always said some things were better forgotten. Why would her husband tell a bunch of teenagers his story, but not his own devoted wife?

_I remember the day Kronos swallowed a rock perfectly. _

_It was the only time there was actually any excitement at that point in my life. Poseidon and I thought he had swallowed it in hopes of getting rid of us because we hadn't digested, after all it must have been uncomfortable for him. Wouldn't you feel it if your children were constantly moving around in your stomach? Pregnant women feel it, so Kronos must have felt us moving around too._

_Demeter told us we were being stupid and he had swallowed the rock so we could grow a garden and didn't have to eat the stuff he ate (gross I know). Hesia protested and told Demeter she was wrong, that Kronos had swallowed it in hopes of giving us warmth when we heated the rock. How she expected us to heat the rock in here, I'll never know. Though it is amusing to think of us heating the rock and burning Kronos alive from the inside._

_And Hera put in her two cents worth by saying we all were wrong and he had swallowed the rock so we could love it until it became a human child for us to raise (she's a little strange in the head). Turns out we were all wrong but we didn't learn that until several years later._

The rock, Persephone mused. Yes, she remembered now, Zeus liked telling that part of the story. Rhea, his mother had tricked Kronos into swallowing a rock instead of Zeus, then she gave Zeus to Gaea, to raise until he could defeat his father.

She read on and one sentence stuck out to her.

_I couldn't help being angry and a little jealous. Why hadn't our mother thought of that when I was born?_

Persephone always knew Hades hated it when Zeus told his story in front of them, was that why? Because it reminded him of Rhea choosing Zeus over him? Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had an uneasy alliance with each other.

They each had one weapon, yet in her opinion, Zeus and Poseidon had weapons that were far more powerful than Hades. The only thing you could do with a helmet of darkness was sneak up on people or eavesdrop.

_I think I was the only one who truly got the short end of the stick, so to speak. I always work while the other two mess around with women and not do much until there is a war. I have to constantly work because human lives are so short. I have three lines of dead people waiting for judgment, more of the dead waiting in the Waiting Room because there are too many in line, not to mention all the spirits who try to get out of the Underworld to haunt their loved ones._

_I have to think up new tortures for the low life's that die and I am forced to expand the Underworld to accommodate the growing number of dead. _

_While on the subject, why do you humans have to have so many wars? It's bad enough when we gods have wars that kill human lives. Don't you think you could come up with a better solution to your problems? Your wars cause more work for me. _

Hades was right.

Zeus controlled the sky and weather, while Poseidon the sea, they could do that in their sleep. Often times the sky or sea would react to their anger.

There had to be someway to change the balance of power they shared. Hades was the god of the dead, he should be the more powerful of the three, Persephone decided.

And this had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted her husband to be more powerful because it made her feel more powerful to be married to such a powerful man. Did that last thought make any sense?

Persephone read on, cringing when she got to the part of Hades taking her away to the Underworld. It brought back bad memories. Finally, she finished and shut down the computer to think.

Hades needed another weapon, she decided. She would speak to him about it. Surely he would listen to reason and agree with her.

At dinner that night she waited until he was almost finished with his food before approaching the subject. "Husband, I've been thinking about the balance of power you share with your brothers."

Hades stared at her suspiciously. "What of it?"

"Don't you think that you got the short end of the stick?" she purposely used his very words from his story.

He said nothing, just looked at her impatiently.

"The Helmet of Darkness is creative, but in the end it's nothing like Zeus's Lightning Bolt or Poseidon's Trident." She watched with a satisfied smile as Hades gripped his fork tightly, bending it in half.

"I think we should forge you a new weapon, a sword. It will have one of the keys to the Underworld in the blade, giving you the power to give or take away life. Don't you think that would make a better weapon than your Helm of Darkness?"

"No Persephone," Hades thundered. "I will not have this weapon made and neither will you. Zeus and Poseidon would be very angry if I imbalanced our shared power."

"But it's not a shared power, can't you see that husband? They—"

"Enough!" he shouted, making the room quake with the power of his words. "I will not discuss this with you any longer!"

With that Hades stormed out of the room.

Persephone smirked slyly.

She would have the sword made in secret and when it was finished and presented to him, Hades would have no choice, but to take it and the balance of power would shift towards Hades.

Persephone left the table and hurried to the sword smith.


End file.
